Questions to Ask Vendor References
Questions for a vendor reference call that get past a rehearsed endorsement, covering implementation slippage, unexpected invoice lines, support escalation, renewal pricing, and what the reference would do differently.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How did you end up choosing them, and who else was in the running?
Why ask it
The shortlist tells you which competitors serious buyers considered, which is often more useful than the endorsement itself. It also reveals whether they ran a real evaluation or inherited the vendor from someone who left.
What were you using before, and what pushed you to change?
Why ask it
The problem they were solving determines whether their experience applies to you at all. A reference replacing a manual process will rate the same vendor very differently from one replacing a mature system.
Which of their people do you actually deal with week to week?
Why ask it
Named roles matter: a dedicated account manager and a shared support queue produce entirely different experiences. Ask whether the people who sold to them are still involved, since that often changes after signature.
How did implementation go, and how did the real timeline compare to the promised one?
Why ask it
Nearly every rollout runs long, so the honest answer is a number and a reason rather than a denial. Compare their slippage to the timeline you are currently being quoted.
What went wrong during the rollout?
Why ask it
Asking what went wrong rather than whether anything did assumes the normal case and gets a specific answer. A reference who insists nothing went wrong is either very early in the relationship or unusually well briefed.
What appeared on an invoice that you had not expected?
Why ask it
Overage charges, professional services hours, extra environments, and data export fees are the usual culprits. This is the single most commonly skipped reference question and the one that most often saves money.
Who on your side ended up doing more work than you planned for?
Why ask it
Vendor projects frequently consume internal engineering, data, or admin time that never appeared in the business case. Their answer tells you which of your own teams to warn before you sign.
How long was it before you were actually getting value?
Why ask it
Time to value is where optimistic procurement cases fail, and references usually give a straight answer because it makes them look reasonable. Compare it against the payback period you have promised internally.
What happens when you raise a support ticket late on a Friday?
Why ask it
Specific timing forces a specific answer rather than a comment on responsiveness in general. Weekend and out-of-hours behavior is where support quality is really tested, and no service description covers it accurately.
Have you ever had to escalate to their management, and what happened?
Why ask it
Every long relationship has one escalation, and how the vendor behaved under pressure predicts your own worst week with them. Listen for whether anyone senior became reachable, and how fast.
Have they missed a commitment, and how did they handle it?
Why ask it
The recovery matters more than the failure: a vendor who called early and offered a credit is a different proposition from one who went quiet. Vagueness here often means the answer is unflattering.
How has your cost changed since you signed, and why?
Why ask it
Renewal uplifts, seat growth, and repricing after an introductory term are where the real total cost lives. A reference two or three years in can tell you what year four looks like, which the sales team will not.
What has renewal negotiation been like?
Why ask it
You learn whether they hold price, whether the discount survives, and how much leverage a customer has once the system is embedded. This shapes what you should insist on in the initial contract.
What did they promise you that has not arrived?
Why ask it
Roadmap commitments made in a sales cycle are the most common unfulfilled promise, and references remember them precisely. If the item they mention is on your own list of reasons to buy, that matters a great deal.
Is there anything they are clearly worse at than the alternatives you looked at?
Why ask it
Framing it as a comparison rather than a criticism makes it much easier to answer. Most references will concede one real weakness when the question does not require them to say they regret the choice.
Who at your company would say this was the wrong decision, and what is their argument?
Why ask it
This lets the reference report someone else's objection, which is far easier than voicing their own. In practice it is the most reliable route to the strongest case against the vendor.
If your contract ended tomorrow, what would you do?
Why ask it
A better test than asking for a recommendation, because it accounts for switching costs and lock-in. Hesitation, or an answer about how painful migration would be, tells you what the endorsement is really worth.
What should I negotiate now that I will not be able to negotiate later?
Why ask it
Customers who have been through a renewal know exactly which clause they wish they had fixed at the start, usually price protection, exit assistance, or data export. This question converts their hindsight into your contract.
If you were sitting where I am, what would you want to know?
Why ask it
Open enough that they can raise the thing your questions missed, and references often use it to say something they have been holding. It also works well as a closing question when the call has gone well.
Is there anyone else I should talk to, whether at your company or elsewhere?
Why ask it
A reference introduced by another customer rather than by the vendor has not been selected for enthusiasm. One such conversation is typically worth several from the official list.
Running a Reference Call
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Getting references worth calling
Ask for a customer like you, then find one yourself
Vendors supply their happiest accounts, which is expected and not dishonest. Ask for a reference matching your size, industry, and deployment model, and separately look for customers through your own network.
Talk to the operator, not just the sponsor
The executive who signed will describe strategy, while the administrator who uses the system daily will describe reality. Ask for both, and treat the second conversation as the important one.
Ask for a churned customer
Some vendors will actually provide one, and their willingness is informative either way. A conversation with someone who left tells you the failure mode faster than three conversations with people who stayed.
On the call
- Confirm at the start that the vendor is not on the line and will not receive a summary.
- Ask about incidents that presume normal difficulty rather than asking whether problems occurred.
- Write down numbers as they are said: weeks, headcount, percentages, ticket response times.
- Follow every general adjective with a request for one example.
- Note what they decline to answer, since the pattern of silence is part of the picture.
- Keep it to thirty minutes and send a short thank-you, because you may want to call them again during renewal.
Where reference checks fail
Doing them after the decision is made
References called to confirm a choice already agreed internally produce nothing but reassurance. Schedule them while the shortlist still has more than one name on it.
Letting the vendor sit in
A reference will not describe a missed commitment with the account manager listening. If the vendor insists on joining, ask for a separate call and note the refusal.
Accepting a rating instead of a story
Scores out of ten are unfalsifiable and forgotten by the next call. What you can act on is a sequence of events, a number, or a clause they wish they had negotiated.